


speak soft

by starrkeys



Category: 5 Seconds of Summer (Band)
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Roommates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-14
Updated: 2016-11-14
Packaged: 2018-08-30 21:48:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,273
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8550394
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starrkeys/pseuds/starrkeys
Summary: luke and ashton are roommates. luke has a headache and ashton doesn't like seeing him in pain.





	

there is a knock on luke’s door. it startles him out of his waking dream. he opens his eyes, staring at the blank wall through the dim lighting. he hugs his pillow to his chest a bit harder, then closes his eyes again, the little sensory input already too much for him. ashton must have gotten home without luke even noticing. he’d been drifting in and out of consciousness all day, from where he lay curled in a ball on his bed. “what?”

“luke?” ashton asks. he doesn’t open the door. when it becomes apparent that he’s waiting for something, luke speaks up.

“come in,” he replies, gripping the pillow in his arms tightly like maybe that will make the pulsing ache behind his eyes go away.

the door creaks open slowly. luke doesn’t hear anything beyond that. he looks back over his shoulder briefly, squinting up at the light from the hall. ashton stands in the doorway.

“you have a headache again?” the older man asks, voice soft.

“yeah. since i woke up.”

“that…” ashton drifts off, doesn’t end up finishing his sentence.

luke turns away, burying his face back into the mattress and blankets. he just wants the pain to stop. he just wants to be able to get up without feeling like he’s going to throw up. he just wants to be able to do anything. listen to music, read, watch tv, walk around, stare at a wall, anything. but no. the only thing he can handle without feeling like death itself is lying around.

he hears ashton walk the short distance from the door and feels the mattress bounce gently as he sits on the edge of luke’s bed.

“is there something i could do?” ashton asks.

“no. i just need to lie here and then hopefully i’ll feel better tomorrow. that’s it,” he says bitterly. even though he’s been getting migraines for many years, it still bothers him that he gets them and that there’s nothing he’s been able to do about it. he used to have hope that maybe there was a reason for them and that he could be ‘cured’ or that there was some painkiller that would make a difference. eventually he had had to admit defeat.

now he just lies on his bed and waits to feel better, hoping that it will only last one day and that when he wakes up the next morning, the pain will be gone just as randomly as it had appeared.

“i just feel so bad about it, luke. i just feel like there must be something that i can do.”

“there isn’t.”

“do you want some water or something…?”

luke slowly lets go of his grip on the pillow and slowly pushes himself up to a sitting position, keeping his eyes closed against the world. “sure. i guess.” he opens his eyes briefly, then closes them at the concerned look on ashton’s face. he hates when people treat him like an invalid but at the same time, people ignoring him when he’s in so much pain is probably even worse.

“you just sit here. i’ll be back,” ashton says.

luke nods blindly, bringing his knees up to his chest and resting his chin on them as ashton stands and leaves the room. the simple actions involved in sitting up cause his stomach to churn violently.

he focuses on his breath. in. out. in.

slowly, his stomach settles and he waits for ashton’s return.

when they first moved in together, just being flatmates, they mostly ignored each other, not wanting to step on any toes. over time, as they became more of friends than just random people living together, ashton started expressing more concern for luke’s wellbeing. nobody since luke lived at home really has been around to take care of him. not since his mother did he have someone to ask if he needed anything. it’s nice.

eventually ashton returns. “here,” he says, offering a glass of cold tap water to luke. the younger man takes it, resting it on his knees, leaning his forehead against the chill. he leaves it there until the cold leaches into his skin, numbing the area and dulling the pain.

ashton sits again on luke’s bed. they don’t talk but luke can hear ash breathing and the simple knowledge that there is someone else there is all that he needs to feel a bit better.

luke takes a sip of his water, feeling the iciness running down his throat to his stomach. he opens his eyes, feeling okay at the moment. he smiles at ash, who continues looking at him with a worried expression on his face, his eyebrows drawn together low over his eyes.

sip by sip, luke finishes the glass of water, handing it back off the ashton once it is empty. “thanks,” he says.

“you’re welcome. anything else?”

luke shrugs the smallest rise of his shoulders. it’s hard to think clearly; it feels like his head has been stuffed with cotton balls and he’s experiencing life through a fog.

“nothing? you sure?”

“yeah. i’ll just sit here and hopefully i’ll feel better later. what time is it?” luke asks, realizing that he doesn’t actually know. it’s all been too much of a blur for him to keep track.

“it’s about six thirty.”

“mmm. hopefully i’ll be able to sleep in a couple hours.”

“a couple hours?” ashton asks. “you’re just going to sit here for a couple hours until you can fall asleep?”

luke reopens one on his eyes briefly to look at ashton. “that’s what i’ve been doing all day. i don’t really have much choice.”

“you can’t even listen to music?” the concern in ashton’s voice is evident. he’s starting to border on pitying and luke doesn’t like the feeling that that gives him.

“no, ash, okay? it sucks. just leave me alone.” luke meant to sound angry (or at the very least a little bit snippy) but what came out sounded pathetic even to his own ears. embarrassingly, he almost felt like he might start crying.

“luke.”

“just go away. leave me alone. i want to be alone.” he turns over onto his side, forming back into a ball facing the wall. blindly, he finds his pillow and holds it to himself, doing his best to pretend that ashton isn’t there and that his head doesn’t feel like it’s going to split open from the movement.

ashton makes no move to leave. “what if i just kept you company? what if I just, i dunno, talked or something. y’know, just so you’re not alone.”

luke doesn’t respond. he feels a hand at his back, warmth leeching through his shirt to his skin. it’s just the barest of pressure. he can’t deny that the idea of having someone here with him is appealing.

he’s always suffered through his migraines alone. but what if he didn’t have to? would he like that? he’s not sure if he would regret allowing ashton to see him at his worst later. he might wake up in the morning with his judgement restored and realize that he really didn’t want anyone to be a witness to this side of him.

but at this time, all he wants is for ashton not to leave him. “you can stay.”

so ashton does, stretched out on the side of luke’s bed, telling stories and chatting as if luke’s monosyllabic answers make for good conversation.

the time passes more swiftly than luke could ever have thought possible, until he’s drifting off to the sound of someone else’s breathing.

in the morning the pain is gone.

**Author's Note:**

> this is super rubbishy but i thought i'd post it anyway. so thanks for reading. i hope you enjoyed. xx


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